1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to saddlery, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an apparatus and method for cinching a saddle to an animal,
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Most saddles are secured on an animal by means of a cinch or girth strap which is connected to both sides of the saddle and passes beneath the body of the animal. The cinch is typically connected to each side of the saddle with a flexible strap. On one side of the saddle, a strap is passed through an opening or ring provided in the saddle and through a buckle provided on one end of the cinch. Similarly, on the other side of the saddle, a second strap is passed through an opening or ring provided in the saddle and through a buckle provided on the opposite end of the cinch. The second strap is often referred to as a latigo.
The straps connecting the cinch to the saddle are looped one or more times through the buckle and through the opening in the saddle before securing the strap in an adjusted position by either a tongue on the buckle or by looping the strap about itself before being terminated in a locking loop. In those cinches having a buckle through which the strap makes several loops, it requires considerable pulling pressure to tighten the cinch about the animal due to the leather strap being looped upon itself resulting in a leather-to-leather sliding contact with the resultant large friction force occurring therebetween. Attempts have been made to solve this problem by providing a cinch buckle provided with rollers to reduce the frictional forces, thereby facilitating the process of cinching the saddle to the horse.
Such buckles also facilitate the removal of the straps from the buckle when one desires to remove the saddle from the horse. However, such buckles still require that the strap be un-looped from the buckle completely before the saddle may be removed from the animal. Such task is tedious and time consuming. Moreover, the strap must be re-looped through the buckle when placing the saddle back on a animal.
To overcome this problem, a cinch strap providing a quick disconnect has been suggested and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,503,715 issued to Schnitger. The Schnitger device includes a connecting buckle with a hook portion that is connectable to a buckle of the cinch strap. The buckle of the cinch strap is modified however so as not to have a catch member. The latigo is looped through the slots provided on the connecting buckle. The connecting buckle may be quickly released from the cinch strap without requiring the latigo from having to be un-looped completely from the connecting buckle. Nevertheless, the Schnitger device does have its drawbacks in that modification of a conventional cinch buckle in the form of removing the catch member and/or grinding the buckle so that it may receive the hook of the connecting buckle is required prior to using the Schnitger device. Therefore, a need exists for an improved cinch connector that permits quick and easy attachment and detachment of a saddle while requiring no modification of a conventional cinch. It is to such an apparatus and method that the present invention is directed.